Number of weekend gun incidents ‘unusual,’ police say

WALLA WALLA — As most Walla Wallans wrestled with the weather, police reported an unusual number of weapons-related incidents over the weekend.

“It’s highly unusual to have this many gun related incidents over this short period of time,” said Tim Bennett, spokesman for the Walla Walla Police Department.

Gun-related crimes weren’t the only unusual activity over a weekend that included an unarmed robbery at Affinity at Walla Walla and a spate of thefts and burglaries in Milton-Freewater. Umatilla County Sheriff’s deputies also reported a woman attempted to run over her boyfriend with her truck.

In all, there were four gun-specific incidents in and around Walla Walla:

• Police early Sunday were notified that a man had been treated for a gunshot wound at Providence St. Mary Medical Center. The 32-year-old told police he had been drinking the night before and decided to go for a walk at Pioneer Park at about midnight, according to Bennett.

The man said two men confronted him at the park, and one of them pulled a gun. The victim told police he attempted to wrestle the gun away from his would-be attacker and was shot in the leg during the tussle.

“The suspects ran off and the victim walked to a residence where he spent the night before being taken to a hospital Sunday morning for treatment of his minor injury and released,” Bennett stated in a news release Monday.

• On Saturday, police responded to a dispute between roommates in the 900 block of Penrose Street.

According to police reports, one of the men involved was holding a rifle during an argument but he was not arrested.

• Police arrested a 28-year-old man for disorderly conduct on Saturday after allegedly disrupting a large, multifamily gathering at Menlo Park in Walla Walla. Witnesses told police the man was yelling at the movie watchers from his residence near the park.

One witness said the man may have pointed a rifle or shotgun at the group. When police contacted the man, he was intoxicated and consented to a search of his home, according to a report. Police found two pistols in the house.

• In College Place on Saturday, a 62-year-old man brandished a .45-caliber handgun during an altercation, according the Walla Walla County Sheriff’s Office.

The man called deputies to report he had confronted a pair of motorists after he noticed they were driving over the speed limit on Hussey Road. The man said he was concerned because there were families with children in the neighborhood, and so he got into his own truck and followed the motorists until they stopped near a private horse riding arena.

The man reported he rolled down his window and asked the pair of motorists to slow down in the future. The two motorist became agitated and one began to take off his shirt and threaten the 62-year-old, who then displayed a pistol and left the area.

The two motorists in question also reported the altercation to police, telling very much the same story. The father-son duo, however, stated they only threatened to kick the 62-year-old’s posterior region after he brandished the pistol.

Deputies spoke with all the parties and confiscated the man’s weapon for safekeeping. No arrests were made.